[1] From the time the painting was shown at the Victorian Artists Society Winter Exhibition in 1890, there has been differing opinions on the story told by the work with "the critic for Table Talk magazine writ[ing] that the woman is newly widowed.

Like Dutch vanitas pictures of the 17th century – with their skulls and snuffed candles, and fruit and flowers past their use-by date – McCubbin is reminding the viewer of the inevitability of death.

[3] The young girl is unknown and the older man was John Dunne, whom McCubbin approached in Collins Street stating "You are the right look for the figure in this painting".

[2] In 1892, the Governor of Victoria, John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, offered a prize for the best poem based on A bush burial.

[4] Chilean-Australian artist Juan Davila recasts McCubbin's painting in his 2000 work also titled A bush burial which depicts a refugee passing through Australian immigration point.